This is a somewhat abbreviated President’s Message, as the big news is the completion of the Observatory roof, which is covered in a separate article.However, that’s not the only topic of interest these days….

The Election:The ballot for the 2008 election for the OCA board is now complete, and, in addition to all of the members of the current board, who have all been very active in different club activities and a real pleasure to work with, we have three excellent additional candidates for the position of trustee, Sheryl Benedict, Leonard Vorhees and Sam Saeed.The current trustees are Tom Kucharski, Gary Schones, Steve Short, Steve Condrey, Alan Smallbone, Shelia Cassidy, and Bill Hepner.

As a brief introduction to the new candidates, Sheryl is an active member of our AstroImage group and our GoTo group, and seldom misses a general meeting or a star party at Anza.She has also regularly attended the board meetings for more than a year, so she definitely knows what she may be letting herself in for.Leonard has a planning background, and has been a real asset to the Anza Site Planning Committee in its efforts to prepare the way for development of the “Northwest Territory” on the Anza site.Sam Saeed is an active member of the AstroImage group, and regularly volunteers to make presentations to the group.He also spends a lot of time at Anza, and he and his wife, Marilyn, regularly help out with cleaning and other work in Anza house or other places on the site, and with such things as setting up and cleaning up after the annual Starbecues and other events.

It’s really great to have such a good group of people to choose from for the next board!You should find candidate statements elsewhere in this issue, and we plan to post them on the website, as well.I hope you’ll all take some time to get to know the candidates a bit – and please be sure to get your ballots in by the end of the January general meeting!

Anza House Roof:This has been in serious need of replacement for a couple years now.Anza House is actually two double-white coaches that were joined.The western coach has a relatively flat metal roof while the eastern coach has a peaked roof with asphalt shingles.Both roofs have problems, and the board has approved a plan proposed by Gary Schones, and accepted an estimate to build up the roof over the western coach to match that on the eastern coach, and put asphalt shingles over both sections.This includes adding insulation to the roof over the western coach, which should help with both heating and cooling.The house is used by almost everyone who goes out to the Anza site and we will all benefit by having a roof on the house that is no longer a set of leaks waiting to happen whenever there is any significant rain.We are having the work done by a contractor so we can get it done before the next rainy season, and have allocated $9,000 for the project. We do need to do this as soon as possible, but the drain on the reserves definitely makes Charlie uneasy – any contributions any of you can make to help with this expense will be very much appreciated!

Anza Locks – Update:We had to move the time when the combinations at Anza will be changed to the day after the December star party (i.e., December 9) so they haven’t been changed yet.If you want to be on the list to get an email with the new combination, please email me at btoy@cox.net.

Last But Not Least – Our Next How To Use Your Telescope Class Is January 4, 2008!If you have a telescope and want some help, or would like to volunteer to help others learn how to use their telescopes, do come!This is part of our Beginners Class, and will be at 7:30 in the parking area at the back of the CentennialHeritageMuseum, located at 3101 West Harvard Street in Santa Ana.See you there!